Initially, when I read through this play myself, I was quite confused and a little disturbed. I could not think of a potential motivation the author could have for writing about how a woman gave birth to rabbits. I thought that it was interesting that the characters tried to offer possible explanations as to why this may have occurred, but each time it would get more absurd. I thought that our brief discussion in seminar last week raised an interesting point about what the rabbits were supposed to symbolize, and it was interesting to learn about how pregnancy tests used to be administered. Still, I was unsure of how watching/listening to this play be performed/read would help me to gain a further understanding of the events and characters.

I was pleasantly surprised with how helpful hearing the play out loud, interpreted by actors, was to my understanding of the exchanges between characters. For example, although the play does state that the characters are drinking and are intoxicated, when I was reading through the play, I personally did not see it in such a way that their state of intoxication was apparent. The actors made the drunken states of their characters clearer in their performance, which helped me to understand some reasoning as to why their explanations were absurd. Additionally, I felt that the screams of agony that the actress portraying Mary did allowed me to become more invested in the story than I was while I was reading it in my head. I was interested to learn that the playwright based this story off of a real hoax from 1726. When it was stated that the play was based on “real events”, I was in disbelief, but after the explanation, it is now apparent to me that the play is attempting to address societal issues such as preconceived gender roles, and I think that this was established in an interesting way.

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